Theme: Light
Hymn 2
Author Unknown
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of Truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn,
And hear in shrinking terror,
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
The watchword has been spoken,
The light has broken forth,
Far shines the blessed token
Upon the startled earth.
To hearts and homes benighted
The blessed Truth is given,
And peace and love, united,
Point upward unto heaven.
Readings from the Bible
Genesis 1:1‑5
In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth. And the earth
was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there
was light. And God saw the light, that
it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the
evening and the morning were the first day.
Psalms 18:25‑32
With the merciful thou wilt
shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; With
the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew
thyself froward. For thou wilt save the
afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my
God will enlighten my darkness. For by
thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: the word of
the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and
maketh my way perfect.
Psalms 27:1‑5
The Lord is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall
I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine
enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and
fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this
will I be confident. One thing have I
desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
inquire in his temple. For in the time
of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psalms 36:5‑10
Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great
mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and
beast. How excellent is thy
lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the
shadow of thy wings. They shall be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them
drink of the river of thy pleasures. For
with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue
thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the
upright in heart.
Psalms 89:1,2,6‑17
I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all
generations. For I have said, Mercy
shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very
heavens.
For who in the heaven can be
compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto
the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are
about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a
strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the
waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast
scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the
fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall
rejoice in thy name. Thou hast a mighty
arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of
thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people
that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy
countenance. In thy name shall they
rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou art the glory of their strength: and
in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
Psalms 139:1‑12
O Lord, thou hast searched
me, and known me. Thou knowest my
downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and
art acquainted with all my ways. For
there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it
altogether. Thou hast beset me behind
and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto
it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell,
behold, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there
shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me;
even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the
day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Isaiah 2:2‑5 it
it shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in
the light of the Lord.
Isaiah 60:1‑3,19,20
Arise, shine; for thy light
is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising.
The sun shall be no more thy
light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but
the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall
thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and
the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
Matthew 5:3‑16
Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit
the earth. Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God. Blessed
are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you,
and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my
sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:
for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which
were before you.
#Ye are the salt of the
earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it
is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under
foot of men. Ye are the light of the
world. A city that is set on an hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a
candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light
unto all that are in the house. Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
John 1:1‑5
In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made. In
him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
xi:9‑21
The physical healing of Christian Science
results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before
which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear
as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to
reformation. Now, as then, these mighty
works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God
with us,"‑‑a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and
repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance to the captives [of
sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are
bruised.
9:32
Consistent prayer is the
desire to do right. Prayer means that we
desire to walk and will walk in the light so far as we receive it, even though
with bleeding footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord, we will leave
our real desires to be rewarded by Him.
34:29‑12
What a contrast between our Lord's last
supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright
morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom had passed into glory, and his
disciples' grief into repentance,‑‑hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil
in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods,
turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore
of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the
burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the
dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists commemorate.
72:9
So‑called spirits
are but corporeal communicators. As
light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in
absolute Science) Soul, or God, is the only truth‑giver to man. Truth destroys mortality, and brings to light
immortality. Mortal belief (the material
sense of life) and immortal Truth (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the
wheat, which are not united by progress, but separated.
191:8
As a material, theoretical life‑basis is
found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle
of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to "where the young child
was," ‑‑even to the birth of a new‑old idea, to the spiritual sense of
being and of what Life includes. Thus
the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing
away the darkness of error.
209:5
Mind, supreme over all its formations and
governing them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, the life
and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine
Mind. The material and mortal body or
mind is not the man.
210:11
Knowing that Soul and its attributes were
forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the
blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the
scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a
better understanding of Soul and salvation.
Jesus healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical
process.
215:11‑21
Spiritual vision is not subordinate to
geometric altitudes. Whatever is
governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of
intelligence and Life.
We are sometimes led to believe that darkness
is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of
the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of
reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and
death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of
error before truth and love.
255:1‑6
Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling‑clothes,
thought expands into expression.
"Let there be light," is the perpetual demand of Truth and
Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres.
266:24
Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his
demonstrations, which dominate the flesh.
Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs which
originate in mortals are hell. Man is
the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe
with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers of time into
the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe.
280:1
In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be
unknown. Symbols and elements of discord
and decay are not products of the infinite, perfect, and eternal All.
From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit,
only reflections of good can come. All
things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and the
product must be mental.
336:25 God
God, the divine Principle of
man, and man in God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal. The Science of being furnishes the rule of
perfection, and brings immortality to light.
God and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Science, God
and man coexist and are eternal. God is
the parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring.
510:9
Truth and Love enlighten the understanding,
in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is
reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false
material sense.
577:32‑18
In the following Psalm one word shows, though
faintly, the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures by
substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal or spiritual sense of
Deity:‑‑
PSALM XXIII
[Divine Love] is my shepherd; I shall not
want.
[Love] maketh me to lie down in green
pastures: [Love] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual
sense]: [Love] leadeth me in the paths
of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for [Love] is with me; [Love's] rod and [Love's] staff they comfort me.
[Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies: [Love] anointeth my
head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of
[Love] for ever.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 82
Arthur C. Ainger
God is working His purpose out
As year succeeds to year,
God is working His purpose out
And the time is drawing near;
Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled with the glory
of God
As the waters cover the sea.
What can we do to work God's work,
To prosper and increase
The brotherhood of all mankind,
The reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled with the glory
of God
As the waters cover the sea?
March we forth in the strength of God
With the banner of Christ unfurled,
That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth
May shine throughout the world;
Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin,
To set their captives free,
That the earth may be filled with the glory of
God
As the waters cover the sea.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 176
Based on the Danish of Nikolaj F. S. Grundtvig
Long hast thou stood, O church of God,
Long mid the tempest's assailing,
Founded secure on timeless rock
Rises thy light, never failing;
Shining that all may understand
What has been wrought by God's command,
O'er night and chaos prevailing.
Let there be light, and light was there,
Clear as the Word that declared it;
Healing and peace to all it gave,
Who in humility shared it.
Ah, they were faithful, they who heard,
Steadfast their trust in God's great Word,
Steadfast the Love that prepared it.
Let there be light, the Word shines forth,
Lo, where the new morning whitens;
O church of God, with Book unsealed,
How its page beacons and brightens.
Living stones we, each in his place,
May we be worthy such a grace,
While Truth the wide earth enlightens.
